Individual and couple therapy, 41800 Hayes Rd, Clinton Twp, MI 48038
This blog post is for people who want to motivate themselves to stop overeating and eat healthier.
Sugar brings pleasure. When does sugar become “a poison?” It all depends on the amount of sugar eaten, if a person is “sugar sensitive” (sometimes addicted to sugar) and the kinds of sugar eaten. In the 1700’s the average American intake of sugar was 1 teaspoon a day. Today the average American intake of sugar is 22 teaspoons of sugar a day.
Anxiety can affect people in many ways. Creative people often struggle with anxiety about their creative process. This post is how EMDR helped one woman artist change her negative self-talk about her artistic talent to positive self-talk.
EMDR, which stands for Eye Movement Desensization Processing, is my favorite therapeutic technique. For many people it quickens the pace of progress in therapy. It is a practice of using bi-lateral stimulation, which could be through eye movements back and forth, a tone heard in one ear then the other ear or tapping one knee then the other knee.
EFT is one of my favorite techniques that speeds up clearing or reducing negative emotional intensity. It uses tapping of the fingers on acupuncture points while having the person tune into specific issues using a protocol simple enough anyone can learn. While it can be used as a self-help technique on one’s own, it is by far most effective to use with the help of an experienced EFT practitioner.
I have known about EFT since the mid 90’s but did not start to use it until about 7 years ago. I became friends with a social worker named Annette Richards. She was enthusiastic about how well EFT had helped her, her clients and her friends. I have worked on some of my own issues at an EFT workshop and one on one with Annette. Each time I worked with her using EFT, it resulted in improved emotions and perceptions.
One of the most common after effects of any kind of trauma is becoming so busy one does not have time to process one’s emotions or feel the emotional pain.
Do you find yourself frequently striving to achieve the impossible?
These photos are of my dog Pebbles jumping to catch a squirrel about 20 feet above her (looking down at her smugly). I wonder why my dog will jump 20 times to reach an animal that is clearly out of her reach. I also wonder why people try so hard to make relationships work where they are being mistreated by their spouse, work long hours to experience a sense of achievement that keeps escaping them, and try to do more than their time allows.
Do you have an over active mind that won’t shut off at night? Do you find yourself dragging at work because you could not get to sleep the night before?
Often people with unresolved trauma have difficulty consistently getting a good night’s sleep. I read on one book that having insomnia is a kind of trauma in and of itself. Even going to bed begins to have a negative association for these people who fear another long night being awake when it feels like everyone else is sleeping.
In this video I hope to present some ways to reduce insomnia that is not well known compared to the typical good sleep hygiene tips: https://youtu.be/QdltoHRevos
People who have experienced emotional and mental abuse often are so wounded they sometimes do not have the ability to empathize with other people. They are unable to put themselves in the other person’s shoes. Ironically these same people may do too much for others and allow themselves to be taken advantage of. They sometimes feel another person’s pain as if it were their own pain.
For years I wondered why people, including myself, were unable to say “no” to certain foods. A book titled The Sugar Addict’s Total Recovery Program by Kathleen DesMaisons provides some answers to this question. DesMaisons has a degree in Addictive Nutrition, which uses nutrition to heal addiction.
Trauma, whether big or “small” often interferes with sleeping. Even when someone is in therapy, self help support groups and/ or taking medications or supplements to help the person sleep, insomnia may persist. I believe therapy that gets to the root of the problems using EMDR, EFT or other methods can restore one’s sleeping patterns. In the mean time, this post is how to help a person make the most of a bad night’s sleep.
Note: I know insomnia is a very frustrating complex problem that can cause great suffering. I have experienced it many times myself. Keeping this in mind, I hope the following reflections can be helpful: